Saved By The Alien Dragon
Galactic Alpha’s Conquest: Book 3
Stella Cassy
Contents
Hey There!
1. Natalie
2. Dashel
3. Natalie
4. Dashel
5. Natalie
6. Dashel
7. Natalie
8. Dashel
9. Natalie
10. Dashel
11. Natalie
12. Dashel
13. Natalie
14. Dashel
15. Natalie
16. Dashel
17. Natalie
18. Dashel
19. Natalie
20. Dashel
21. Natalie
22. Dashel
23. Natalie
24. Dashel
25. Natalie
26. Dashel
27. Natalie
28. Dashel
29. Natalie
Epilogue
Chapter One Preview – Enslaved By The Alien Dragon
Free Prequel!
Saved By The Alien Dragon
Hey There!
Cosmic Collector delves into the past, offering a glimpse of Tarion as a hatchling after the death of his birth mother. Through the alternating perspectives of Tarion's sire, Silea, and Alana, a human woman that captured his heart, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the Hielsrane dragons, from their possessive tendencies to their battle-hardened exteriors.
Click here to download your FREE Prequel, Cosmic Collector, by signing up for Stella Cassy’s Insider Club!
1
Natalie
Terrible drilling, blasting, roaring, and screeching reverberated through the caverns of the N-7 mining colony, doubling back on itself in endless echoes. It was how I imagined it would sound if giant demons did battle with each other in the deepest pits of hell.
The noise alone was enough to break at least half a dozen humans from every new shipment of slaves. Either they fell to their knees within moments, screaming and clutching their heads as their eardrums bled, or they went insane over the course of several days –going limp, twitching and spasming, gibbering streams of unbroken nonsense just to remind themselves they still had voices, until they were dragged away, never to be seen again.
Not me, though.
From the moment I first descended into the gold mines of the planet Nort and my ears were assaulted by the constant racket, I was determined not to let my captors see how much it pained me. I kept my eyes clear and my head held high, even though the sounds gave me a persistent low-level migraine and set my teeth on edge. They also put me in a spiteful mood which never seemed to go away.
Good. I could channel my anger into my work, I reasoned. The better to please my superiors.
It was how I'd managed to earn my collar of pure durabilium – the totem of a respected supervisor within the mines, instead of just another slave. To my knowledge, I was one of the only human workers within the Pax Alliance to wear such a collar. Most of the others wore collars of leather or dull chains, with the occasional collar of cheap gold plating, to identify the wearers as entertainers or playthings.
The Pax Alliance. Not for the first time, I couldn't help but smirk to myself at the irony in the name of my captors. On my home world of Earth, pax had been an ancient Latin word meaning “peace”, but the Pax were anything but peaceful – they'd spread their empire across the known galaxy like an unstoppable blight, gobbling up other planets' resources and violently crushing and conscripting dozens of other races into their service.
Humans had been one of the easiest species for them to overcome and dominate, which I found blackly amusing. Hadn't a large percentage of Earth fiction been focused on what would happen if we'd been visited by hostile alien forces? You'd think we'd have been better prepared for their onslaught.
Perhaps we'd been too busy fighting among each other, in the name of pitiful flags and failing nation-states. Too divided to unite and fight back when it mattered the most.
Still, too late to dwell on such things now. And dangerous, too – I couldn't afford to get lost in my own thoughts while working in these mines. I'd seen too many gruesome accidents happen that way, and I wasn't going to let myself become their latest victim. A slave who loses an arm or a leg can't work, after all. And a slave who can't work...
Well, I'd seen what happened to them too, and I'd sooner have died than ever let that happen to me.
I heard a throaty growl behind me and turned around just in time to get out of the way of a hulking Nk'athen as it lumbered past on four legs, hauling several heavy barrows of raw ore. Its lumpen gray flesh looked like it was lined with clusters of hardened tumors and blisters. Its claws were wide and flat like overlapping shovels, capable of burrowing through solid stone or ripping a human in half with a single swipe. It had four beady black eyes set far back in an elongated face, and when its mouth opened, it revealed rows of dagger-like inverted teeth all the way down its gullet, dripping with sticky blue corrosive saliva. Its tongue was like a cobalt snake, slithering in and out as it licked its lips. Like all the Nk'athens in the mines, its face was bound by a heavy protective muzzle of thick leather and metal studs.
They were, without a doubt, the most foul and hideous creatures I'd ever seen. And not just because...
No, I thought, shaking my head to clear it. I can't think about him. Not right now, not when there's so much work to do before my shift ends. Later, when I'm alone in the barracks, I can let myself feel weakness. But out here in front of all the others, there's only being strong or being broken. There is nothing in between. And I will not be broken.
As I tried to maintain my focus, I heard the voice of the Vence droning flatly inside my head as he communicated telepathically with all of the workers at once: Five cleks until mid-shift. Five cleks until mid-shift. The words were automatically translated into English by my brain's speech centers, but the alien's own clicking insectile language lurked and skittered just behind them, like a swarm of scorpions crawling behind a curtain.
I looked up at the guard tower positioned on the highest ridge of the mine and saw him – Second Officer Korthlo, a six-legged creature with cruel-looking pincers and a set
